58 The Ottawa Naturalist. [June. 



equipment of buildings and apparatus and about 30 acres of 

 land which are devoted exclusively to plant breeding and seed 

 selection work. This scientific staff works ^together ^with a 

 commercial organization which is known as the General|Swedish 

 Seed Company. The superior selections of wheat, oats, barley, 

 grasses, rye potatoes and other crops produced by Nilsson^and 

 his staff are increased on the larger areas_^of land and ultimately 

 sold for seeding bv the commercial compan}'. 



Sweden is a storm-driven and rust-ridden country. The 

 climatic conditions are not dissimilar to those of the north of 

 Scotland. Proir to 1890, Swedish farmers suffered heavy losses 

 from their grain crops being driven down by storms and badh- 

 rusted. Dr. Nilsson conceived the idea of going to those storm- 

 driven and badly rusted fields and selecting individual plants 

 which had shown their ability to resist both the storm and rust 

 and were otherwise of good quality. These individual plants of 

 outstanding merit he calls mutants, or sports that will increase 

 true to type. Such mutants he has found to be produced by 

 natural cross fertilization, which occurs but rarely with wheat, 

 oats and barley. He has found such sports the type of which 

 was not fixed but would continue to vary in a manner quite 

 similar to artificial crosses. The good grain from these individual 

 plants is sown with hand drills in rows about seven inches apart, 

 to correspond as nearlv as possible with field conditions, both 

 as to soil and thickness of seeding. Out of the 100 or more 

 plants which were first selected and increased in these single 

 rows, a few of the very best are selected and continued the next 

 year on larger plots. From the larger plots the yield and the 

 milling, feeding or malting qualities are determined and only 

 the very best of the new selections those which are superior 

 for certain conditions of their soil or climate to any of their 

 older sorts are increased and handed over to the commercial 

 company. 



Formerly the average yield per acre of the cereal crops of 

 Sweden ranked low when compared with the other countries 

 of Europe. During the last three years Sweden has ranked in 

 yield of cereal crops per acre among the first five European 

 countries, which is somewhat remarkable considering her position 

 to the far north. If we are to consider the south of Sweden 

 alone, the yield per acre of her grain crops is second only to 

 that of England. Practically all of the cereal crops now grown 

 in Sweden are traceable to Nilsson and his staff, and in their 

 publications the people of Sweden frankly acknowledge their 

 indebtedness to Nilsson for the advanced coQ4*fei& of their 

 agriculture. 



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